trade aid
In response to my post on global white band day, iiq responded that people can,
Help to make a difference to poverty from lack of free trade and choices.Agreed.
The distinction between free trade and fair trade is important when considering third world countries. People trade and nations trade - rather, all people and all nations trade in different ways and at differing levels of status. Googling Fair Trade will get heaps of info on the minutiae I'm sure - but IMHO, China's the problem.
The astonishingly low prices that an item can be made for in China is just nuts (take the NZ price, divide it by 8 and that's the cost in US dollars to get it made, packaged AND to a port of your choice in China). Global trade has to be about open access (USA and EU not doing very well) and reasonable prices paid for goods. The price of Chinese goods is, simply, too low. The single biggest action any government can take to make fair trade happen is for China to float the Yuan.
I suspect that, unfortunately, would cause a global financial crisis. I don't know the answer to that whopping problem.
The depressing reality is that global poverty isn't going to end in my lifetime. Prove me wrong and I'll be happy - but I'm not wrong on this one.
NGO's like Oxfam, and campaigns like Make Poverty History will make a difference - but only to some, and only slowly. It doesn't mean that individual actions should be ignored as irrelevant. It's up to consumers to make change happen slowly with their wallets. It's hard to make those choices - in fact it's a bitch (Foodtown Mt Eden, in particular, should be able to keep Scarborough Fair coffee in stock more often).
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It doesn't mean that individual actions should be ignored as irrelevant. It's up to consumers to make change happen slowly with their wallets.
And that really is what it is all about. If people don't purchase non-free range eggs this will be a faster way to kill battery farming than legislation ever will.
Making packaging and recycling part of the purchasing choice and producers will flock to change their ways.
Make country of origin a factor in your purchasing choice and Government initiatives can almost be made irrelevant.
What is the easiest way to stop the plundering of the Amazonian rainforests? Join those people that refuse to purchase paper from companies that will not declare where it was harvested from. If there is no market for the pulp the exploitation will stop.
People need to realise that as the consumer they are responsible for the decisions made by the companies that produce the goods and services they use.
Government needs to play a role to make these things happen - mandatory country of origin labelling is an obvious example.
Governments also should be responsible for lobbying other Governments to do the same and aiding NGOs to inform global consumers about the choices they make.
In NZ, we have little excuse for ignorance as consumers, given the easy access we have to information. The global consumer - on the whole - doesn't have this luxury. As citizens, we need to push our representatives and NGOs to work at disseminating that information and encouraging best (& highlighting worst) practice among corporates around the world.
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